Archives: July 2014

'After a United Nations-run school sheltering more than 3,000 Palestinians was shelled early Wednesday, UN official Chris Gunness could not contain his grief while on camera with Al Jazeera Arabic. "The rights…

By Mariam Elba via Waging Nonviolence A breathtaking piece of art highlighting the struggles of Palestinians in Gaza (Bushra Shanan) It’s hard to find the words to encapsulate how infuriating and sorrowful…

By RFE/RL The Islamic State initially exhibited some restraint after entering northwestern Iraq in June, focusing on establishing control of the territories it held and gaining the trust of local Sunni communities.…

By Juan Cole Israel launched a 7-hour campaign of intensive bombing of Gaza on Tuesday, destroying its only power plant. Gaza can no longer generate its own electricity. Without electricity, the water…

By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab. Tripoli, 29 July 2014: Former Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur has been kidnapped according to reports, although it has not been confirmed. Abushagur, who was elected in Suq Al-Juma…

By Juan Cole This British "report" suggests that Palestinians in Gaza were all right with being militarily occupied by the Israeli army in 1956-1957 before an absolutely furious President Dwight Eisenhower forced…

"A social media campaign calls for peace between Jews and Arabs, CNN's Samuel Burke explains." Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies Here are some Tweets from the campaign: The #JewsAndArabsRefuseToBeEnemies social…

By Yakir Englander via ISLAMiCommentary Yakir Englander Serious illness calls for first aid, then sometimes surgery, followed by healing the source of the disease. If you ask which is most important, I’d…

DW: "Norway derives almost 100 percent of its energy from hydropower. For Germany's planned transition to renewable energy, a close partnership is crucially important, because Norwegian pumped storage power stations could balance…

By Peter Van Buren via Tomdispatch.com You can't get more serious about protecting the people from their government than the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, specifically in its most critical clause: "No person shall…

By Nurit Peled-Elhanan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Via The Conversation Times are very rough for both Israeli and Palestinian families. The death toll in Gaza currently stands at around 620, 74 of…

Known for kidnapping, public stonings, lashings and executions, the Islamic State (IS) is now expanding into tourism, taking jihadists on honeymoon and civilians to visit other parts of its "caliphate".

By Christopher DeMorro via CleanTechnica Though solar power is still far from surpassing coal as America’s primary energy source, the number of people employed by the solar industry has surpassed the number…

By Luisa Gandolfo via The Conversation When the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused Hamas of using “telegenically dead Palestinians for their cause”, he overlooked an element of the conflict that could…

By Ann Werner US government scientists have released their findings that this past June is the hottest on record since record keeping began in 1880. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)…

By Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini All fighting within cities and all bombardments of urban spaces, even the most "precise and surgical", is a potential death trap for civilians. Consequently, the permeation…

By Juan Cole Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal points to the overwhelming bias in US media against the Palestinians, calling NBC to account for having tried to remove an Arab-American reporter from Gaza…

Journalist Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine), in Gaza, has been tweeting sardonic observations about living through the Israeli bombardment of his friends and family. They together form a sort of stream-of-consciousness journal: I look…

By Smiti Mittal 22,000 MW solar power capacity by 2022, a dedicated national-level program for promoting wind energy generation, implementation of the world’s largest solar power projects (with capacity of up to…

By Simon Reich, Rutgers University The tragic circumstances surrounding the downing of Malaysian Airlines’ flight MH17 remain unclear. The three parties who might be responsible – the Ukrainians, the Russians and the…

By Juan Cole The Israeli security establishment was almost certainly encouraged to launch its military assault on little Gaza by the current divisions over political Islam in the Middle East. Hamas is…

Human Rights Watch Bombings of Civilian Structures Suggest Illegal Policy Israel’s rhetoric is all about precision attacks but attacks with no military target and many civilian deaths can hardly be considered precise.…

The National Iranian American Council There are very few studies measuring the cost of sanctions to the sanctioning countries. In the case of Iran, where unprecedented U.S. and international sanctions may soon…

"Easy to understand, historically accurate Jewish Voice for Peace mini- primer about why Israelis and Palestinians are fighting, why the US-backed peace process has been an impediment to peace, and what you…

By Carlyn Meyer In a stunning revelation published by the Jewish daily news magazine, Forward, JJ Goldberg uncovers an almost pathological new low for PM Netanyahu’s deceptive ‘bait and switch’ style of…

By Tom Engelhardt via Tomdispatch For America’s national security state, this is the age of impunity. Nothing it does -- torture, kidnapping, assassination, illegal surveillance, you name it -- will ever be…

By Juan Cole Dark Satire: Irony alert Prosecutor: "Justices of the International Criminal Court, I shall demonstrate to you that this man (points at detained Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu in orange jump…

By Robyn Purchia Pope Francis is putting a smile on environmentalists’ faces again. In an address at the University of Molise on Saturday, an agricultural and industrial region in southern Italy, Pope…

Geneva, Switzerland — The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), a fellowship of over 300 churches which represent some 590 million people in 150 countries, endorsed fossil fuel divestment…

By Charles Recknagel As disappointed Abdullah Abdullah supporters label Afghanistan's early election results a "coup d'etat," there is every reason to take seriously their threats to form a parallel government rather than…

By Christopher DeMorro Originally posted on EVObsession Situated on the southern slopes of the Eastern Himalayan mountains, the Kingdom of Bhutan has fewer people than the state of Rhode Island and even…

By Chloé Benoist As Israeli forces began their assault on the Gaza Strip, Israel’s leaders and media ramped up a rhetoric offensive, using dehumanizing discourse to garner support for deadly military action…

By James Ayre The US’s sometimes pseudo-antagonist, Iran, is apparently planning to spend $60 million on solar PV power projects this year, according to recent reports. That represents a pretty significant uptick…

By: Yazan al-Saadi As tragedy and uninterrupted terror strikes the besieged Palestinian population once more, Western media outlets have been busy producing and presenting articles and television reports on the events taking…

By Hugh Lovatt "Destroying Hamas infrastructure and removing its leaders could also lead to de-centralisation" The abduction and killing of three young Israelis has brought to the fore painful memories for Israelis…

By Golnaz Esfandiari To help Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government battle militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Iran could potentially offer significant assistance through its powerful…

By Robyn Purchia In some good new in the fight against climate change, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) passed a resolution calling for divestment of their $175 UUA Common Endowment Fund from…

By Francis Ghilès Senior Research Fellow, CIDOB When Algeria qualified for the knockout stage of the World Cup by winning against Russia, the Algerian press celebrated their team’s qualification as the greatest…

By Juan Cole Americans are commemorating the Fourth of July today, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The grievances that the four million inhabitants of British North America had in 1776…

Via Human Rights Watch (Jerusalem) – Israel’s military operations in the West Bank following the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers have amounted to collective punishment. The military operations included unlawful…

By Lauren McCauley Lawmakers and anti-war groups raise flags about additional troop deployments and calls for executive "flexibility" As the number of American troops sent to Iraq nearly doubled on Monday and…

By Gyanendra Pandey New Delhi Through the President's address to Parliament on June 9, 2014, the newly elected Indian Government has officially outlined its short and longer-term agenda. The emphasis, as expected,…

State Department official documented in memo that mercenary threatened him just weeks before Nisour Square massacre By Jon Queally As the trial continues against Blackwater mercenaries accused of a bloody massacre that…

By Juan Cole The kidnapping and killing of three Israeli squatter youth whose parents usurped Palestinian land has produced a paroxysm of hatred and calls for reprisals in Israel. Whoever is responsible…